New national curricula guidelines that support the use of interprofessional education in Brazilian context: an analysis of key documents

The National Curricular Guidelines (NCGs) are important documents for understanding the history of academic health professions education in Brazil. Key policies within the NCGs have helped to re-orient health professions education and have stimulated curricular changes, including active learning methodologies, more integrated teaching-service environments and, more recently, have introduced interprofessional education (IPE) in both undergraduate and postgraduate sectors. This paper presents the findings of a study that examined the NCGs for nursing, dentistry and medicine courses as juridical foundations for adopting strategies that promote IPE across higher education institutions in Brazil. We employed a comparative and exploratory documentary analysis to understand the role of IPE or collaborative practices in NCGs for the three largest professions in Brazil. Following a thematic analysis of these texts, four key themes emerged: faculty development; competencies for teamwork; curricular structure; and learning metrics. Key findings related to each of these themes are presented and discussed in relation to the wider interprofessional literature. The paper goes on to argue that the statements contained in the NCGs about adoption of IPE and collaborative practices will have an important influence in shaping the future of health professions education in Brazil.